Anchoring elements for fastening cladding tiles to a support wall structure are known in the art. Such anchoring elements generally consist of a profiled member in the form of a plurality of anchoring brackets each provided with various protruding and/or laterally extending tabs or hooks. The anchoring brackets are generally nailed or screwed to the wall panels or frame members of a structure to be covered with cladding tiles. The cladding tiles may be inserted or clamped into tabs or hooks of the anchoring brackets gradually as the latter are fastened to the support wall structure, or only once all the anchoring brackets have been installed.
The anchoring bracket of the prior art is generally represented by an assembly of components screwed or welded together, or a single sheet of metal formed by a multi-step punch process, or is integrally molded as a one piece element using a conventional injection process. The preferred material or materials used to manufacture the bracket are generally rigid materials that is UV and corrosion resistant such as aluminum, stainless steel, ABS, PVC or the like.
Typical examples of the prior art are U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,373, to Osawa (1985), U.S. Pat. No. 2004/0010998A1, to Turco (2004), U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,457, to Sjolander (1995), U.S. Pat. No. 2,188,090, to Young (1989), and Japanese Pat. Nos. JP02115445A2, to Shimonohara (1990).
Although these prior art devices generally offer an anchoring means for fastening cladding tiles to a support wall structure, none satisfactorily accomplish this task in an efficient and economical way, particularly in the case of a support bracket for anchoring overlapping cladding tiles.
Against this background, there exist a need for a new and improved support bracket for anchoring overlapping cladding tiles to a support wall structure. It is a general object of the present invention to provide a new and improved support bracket for anchoring overlapping cladding tiles to a support wall structure.